¡Ecuador or Bust!

It would have been nice to document the beginning of our journey with photos, but when we were running through airports to catch our flights, I'll be the first to admit that I did not think about pulling my camera out.
We started off early Tuesday morning saying good bye to Danika's family and flying out of LAX at 6:45 am. Everything, including the getting by with an extra couple of pounds in each of our checked bags with no charge, had gone smoothly until we were somewhere over New Mexico. We were told that due to weather buildup (thunderstorms) around our destination in Houston, we would be diverted to another airport until the weather cleared. Fortunately we had a three hour buffer before our flight would be leaving for Panama, so we weren't too worried. We landed in San Antonio and due to our delay, all passengers were given free access to the satellite TV. Bonus. But as time went on and even though the weather had cleared, there was a back up of flights in the airspace and we weren't high on the list. To make it short, our plane touched down 2 minutes before our flight to Panama was scheduled to leave, we lucky to have had that flight delayed because its pilots had been somewhere in that backed up line. But we made it.
When we arrived in Panama, unfortunately we didn't get to see the land because it was already night. This time all those who were going to fly to Quito (there were about 12 of us) were greeted at the gate by an airport employee who briskly lead us to the other end of the airport where our Quito flight had been held for us. Jokingly I said to the gate attendant that we had just made it, and she responded, half under her breath: "Good thing because we would have left in two minutes, with or without you." Wow.
So we took out last jot into Quito. Looking out the window at the city, it was like seeing a flowing river of lights defined by the unseen mountains and all their features, ever being fed by smaller streams of lights descending from higher up in the mountains.
Once in the airport, we collected all but one of our bags, which must have lagged in the quick transitions between planes, went through La Aduana (customs) and were met by our Quito counterpart and taken to the Quito house to rest.
Phew, a long day of travel came to an end. We were exhausted, which is funny how hours of sitting can literally exhaust all your reserves, but happy to have made it.